New unit ideas

Game Talk The Drawing Board
1

So I’ve been thinking about all the types of units we currently have in cataclysm, and I’ve come up with a few new creatures I think would be interesting. (hopefully)

Skull Cap Zombies: Zombies that have grown a second outer skull covering their head. These zombies are a little tougher to kill than normal, and make head shots less effective. Weaker bullets have a very small chance of bouncing off of them. (The skull cap trait works with any zombie, including the fearsome hulk.) Uncommon Trait

Feral Spitter Zombie: Because why the heck not? This will be a relatively rare zombie, but encountering it will make you wish you had a ranged weapon on you. Rare unit

Bone plated Zombie: A zombie that has its entire body coated in a thick bone plating. These zombies gain a slight bonus to attack, and a large bonus to defense. However there movement is slowed. Bludgeons or explosives are the best way to fight these zombies. Piercing is also pretty decent if you have a good enough skill/weapon. Cutting and plain fire won’t do very much to stop these behemoths. Bullets, arrows and throwing won’t do very much either, as most of it will just bounce off of this zombie’s body, merely leaving a scratch. (This trait works on normal zombies, brutes, and hulk zombies.) Now we can have a super durable hulk that’s really hard to kill, able to take on anything! (More so than the normal hulk) Unique trait.

Bone Horror Zombie: A somewhat fast zombie that has grown bone all over the outside of its body into large spikes. Facing this zombie in close range is not recommended as there is a chance of you cutting yourself on its spikes. (Especially if you’re using unarmed.) These guys aren’t as tough as they look though, and are actually considered easier to kill than the bone plated zombie by a lot. They’re just above a normal skull cap in terms of durability. Weaker bullets have a moderate chance of bouncing off of them. Rare unit

Now these next units are probably going to be the hardest to implement, for now at least.

Crazies: These are guys/gals that have gone crazy, believing that this reality is not real. To wake themselves up they will start fighting anything they see that moves. The good side to this is that they may attack your enemies, but the bad size is that they will attack you if they see you! (provided they aren’t distracted by other units) Pack 1 - 3 Rare. They spawn with a couple of randomized weaponry skills and stats. Not only this but they also spawn with low - mid tier weaponry. (mid being on the rarer side) Most of there equipment is melee based, however a few may start off with some arrows or a very inaccurate gun of some sort. Just be careful though. These units can pick up discarded equipment just like an NPC. In terms of toughness/strength the average Npc can kill a crazy or two before dying. A lot of these guys carry some type of food or ammo on them. (even if they don’t have the proper gun for it just yet) They will occasionally say something that makes you question their sanity, or talk about how you’re going to die. They wear low quality armor, with the occasional mid quality armor. Some of them ride in vehicles

Injector Zombie: A zombie that delivers a more potent bite. (Infection chance is higher)

Insanist (can’t think of a better name): Like the Crazies only even crazier. These guys know that this world is real. However they embrace it as they now feel like this world can finally be a true test of their skills. They go outside killing everything, not just because they want to purify this world. No, they have no need for that. They merely do this to keep boredom at bay. In terms of skill these guys could face a hulk or even two at a time and still manage to survive (if only barely). They have higher stats than the player (assuming he’s playing vanilla stats) and are considered superhuman. Additionally they may start off mutated or even have their own bionics. The equipment they spawn with is of medium - high quality (high quality being on the upper side) They will almost always have a ranged weapon of some type, and all of these guys are at least decently skilled in unarmed combat. (level 3-4) They can heal themselves with med packs, and can also pick up equipment. These guys are the true test of your skill and only start to spawn after 14 days into the game. When first seeing you, the game will go into safe mode followed by the Insanist spouting something about your death, or to make him less bored than the others he has faced. He will also track you if you try to run away, and will always travel on foot. Just like an NPC the insanist has multiple body parts.
(Legendary unit)

So what do you think? Do you have any suggestions of your own? (Also sorry if there was a thread already like this, I couldn’t find it.)

2

The Human-monsters have been rejected before, might make for nice NPCs though.

I have been wondering why I seem to be the only mutant in my game, I’d be curious to see some more mutant-zombies besides the occasional swimmer…

3

Do you like the zombies though? :open_mouth:

4

We have enough similar zombies, different only in what they’re wearing and no special skill, so i think this would be better as a trait applied to zombies wearing head protection, as the Zombie Soldiers.

Not hard to deal alone, problematic in group/acting with other fast zombies, since you have to position yourself in a no-acid square and then attack, and the Feral Spitter will be already there hitting you. Like it as it is.

Hm… kinda indecised about it. Cool, but i worry about how hard to kill they would be. So, agree on it to be tested.

Agree on it as rare and in city centers. The city borders are easier and starting survivors would suffer a lot against something that can’t be outrunned or fought without bad consequences.

[quote=“gammaflux, post:1, topic:8038”]Now these next units are probably going to be the hardest to implement, for now at least.

Crazies: These are guys/gals that have gone crazy, believing that this reality is not real. To wake themselves up they will start fighting anything they see that moves. The good side to this is that they may attack your enemies, but the bad size is that they will attack you if they see you! (provided they aren’t distracted by other units) Pack 1 - 3 Rare. They spawn with a couple of randomized weaponry skills and stats. Not only this but they also spawn with low - mid tier weaponry. (mid being on the rarer side) Most of there equipment is melee based, however a few may start off with some arrows or a very inaccurate gun of some sort. Just be careful though. These units can pick up discarded equipment just like an NPC. In terms of toughness/strength the average Npc can kill a crazy or two before dying. A lot of these guys carry some type of food or ammo on them. (even if they don’t have the proper gun for it just yet) They will occasionally say something that makes you question their sanity, or talk about how you’re going to die. They wear low quality armor, with the occasional mid quality armor. Some of them ride in vehicles[/quote]

In fact, your description is exactly a NPC who wants to kill you, excluding being in packs, driving and their usual behavior of attacking everything first, you later already makes me question their sanity… I’ve seen a lot of survivors carrying flamethrowers and two with C4 rifles. Thankfully the flame users were dumb and killed themselves through burning! Also, i don’t know how much work is needed to have driving NPCs…

…the problem here is that if you can’t run of them, congratulations, you will die. And i’m against insta-killing, so, no for them, the NPCs who want to kill you warn you before, giving time for you to run away to safety. But having them as Quest enemies, no problem, if you know what will be facing.

Wait a bit for this one, desinfecting through cauterizing is been rethought.

[quote=“gammaflux, post:1, topic:8038”]Insanist (can’t think of a better name): Like the Crazies only even crazier. These guys know that this world is real. However they embrace it as they now feel like this world can finally be a true test of their skills. They go outside killing everything, not just because they want to purify this world. No, they have no need for that. They merely do this to keep boredom at bay. In terms of skill these guys could face a hulk or even two at a time and still manage to survive (if only barely). They have higher stats than the player (assuming he’s playing vanilla stats) and are considered superhuman. Additionally they may start off mutated or even have their own bionics. The equipment they spawn with is of medium - high quality (high quality being on the upper side) They will almost always have a ranged weapon of some type, and all of these guys are at least decently skilled in unarmed combat. (level 3-4) They can heal themselves with med packs, and can also pick up equipment. These guys are the true test of your skill and only start to spawn after 14 days into the game. When first seeing you, the game will go into safe mode followed by the Insanist spouting something about your death, or to make him less bored than the others he has faced. He will also track you if you try to run away, and will always travel on foot. Just like an NPC the insanist has multiple body parts.
(Legendary unit)[/quote]

There’s a mod being created that add people well knew of the community in the game as NPCs, and most are hostile AND dangerous, to the player. So i guess you will see Insanist soon xD

5

The new effects thing combined with injector zombies could lead to some interesting enemies.

A zombie whose bite causes intense pain or poison the player and lower stats.

Edit*
It looks like you could blind the player for a set amount of time. Heheheh

6

+1 on a poisonous zombie that may easily give you an infection

For the skullcap-zombie it could also use a special headbutt attack, that may knock you back a field?

I like all of your ideas, except the Crazies and insanist can be somehow tricky, I imagine.

7

Not a big fan of the skullcaps or of the bone horrors, ranged is already so inferior when you compare it to melee. I really rather not have yet another zombie that is specially designed to trump firearm users.

Decayed zombies should already fill the same role as the injector, at least I think that was what they were supposed to do.

8

I like the idea of a zombie with “thorns”, but I’m not sure how that can be made to fit the lore. I’d like more tactical style zombies, like one that shoots a goo around you that slows you down, one that can boost the speed of surrounding zombies (could go into zombie master), and one with some sort of slow ranged attack that tries to flee when you close on it.

9

Well at some point we were supposed to have zombies mutate right? This could be a mutation path for the skeleton. (once that goes in)

[quote=“John Candlebury, post:7, topic:8038”]Not a big fan of the skullcaps or of the bone horrors, ranged is already so inferior when you compare it to melee. I really rather not have yet another zombie that is specially designed to trump firearm users.

Decayed zombies should already fill the same role as the injector, at least I think that was what they were supposed to do.[/quote]

To be fair the Bone horror does have a chance of harming you from thorn damage when in melee. Also this one should be relatively rare, and most of the time bullets won’t actually bounce off. Skull caps will very rarely block bullets if ever. Really the only thing they have going for them is that head shots are less likely to proc, as well as a slightly higher durability.